Bible Text: St John 16:5–15 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
The Son sends us the Spirit and the Spirit gives us the Son, just as the Father sends us His Son and the Son gives us His Father. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One God, and that means that when you have the Spirit, you have the Son, and if you have the Son, His Father is your Father, and when you have that you have everything. The most important thing you can know about the Spirit is what Jesus says in our Gospel lesson for today, and that is that He takes of what is Jesus’, and gives it to you. A lot of Christians these days are seeking gifts of the Spirit, gifts of healing, gifts of speaking in tongues, gifts of prophecy, but what Jesus tells you to expect from the Spirit is far greater than any of that. God made a donkey prophesy. Jesus told the Pharisees he’d make the rocks speak in tongues. He gave the gift of healing even to heathen. But sonship? Adoption? The power to become children of God? He doesn’t even give that to angels. But He gives it to you. The Spirit gives you the Son. He gives you Sonship, which is how you say adoption in Greek, Sonship. He takes what belongs to the Son and gives it all to you.
This is why Jesus says that it is “to your advantage” that he goes away. Because only then will He send the Spirit. That’s not because the Spirit is up in heaven, and Jesus has to go there first to get Him, and send Him to you. When he says He is going away, he doesn’t mean he’s just going to go to heaven. That’s just not what he does. He goes to the cross, he suffers, he dies, he rises, and only then does he go to heaven. It is to your advantage that Jesus goes away, because His going away is His suffering and death and resurrection, and that is to your advantage. And only when He has suffered and died does Jesus then give the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit takes of what is Jesus’ and gives it to you. He takes of His death and gives it to you. It’s the death that conquered death, God the Son facing our mortal enemy, and defeating him, and the Spirit gives that to us. He takes of the shedding of His blood, and He gives that to us, makes us drink of it even. He takes His perfect obedience, and He gives that to us. He takes of His life, and He gives that to us. Everything the Son did, and is, on that cross, the Holy Spirit takes it and gives it to you.
In the Gospel of John, you see the death of Jesus described like nowhere else. He says those words, “It is finished,” which means, “The price has been paid for all sin, for death,” and then we hear the words, “And He handed over the Spirit.” It gets translated, “He gave up His spirit,” or something similar, to make it sound like he’s just taking his last breath. Like he gave up the ghost. But that’s just not what it says. Never in all Greek literature is that verb ever used to talk about giving up the ghost. It is the word for handing over, handing down, and that is what Jesus does, it’s His last act on the cross, to give the Spirit to us. Because the Spirit gives us what Jesus won on that cross.
Jesus describes the Holy Spirit’s work in three ways, “He will convict the world of sin, because they do not believe in me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you see me no more, and of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” The word that gets repeated there is “world.” This is the particular insistence of Jesus. The scope of His work is universal. He constantly uses the word, “world:” God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son. Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. The Holy Spirit convicts the whole world of sin. Or He speaks of all nations, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all nations to myself.” “Go and baptize all nations.” He is the universal Lord, the universal Savior, His claim is on everyone, He is everyone’s Creator, He pays with His blood for everyone’s sin, faces the death of everyone, and so He insists that the Spirit give it to everyone, to the whole world. And that’s exactly what happens.
Think of that. It happened, it is happening. We often talk about Jesus fulfilling prophecy – holy men of God hundreds, sometimes thousands of years before Christ, told that He would come, be born of the virgin, suffer for us, die, and rise again. And Jesus fulfilled it. And we can hang our faith on that – it is one of the greatest witnesses of the truth of our religion. But this is greater. Jesus says to eleven men, His tiny little church there in Jerusalem, that after He goes to the cross, the Spirit will convict the whole world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, and it happens. Without firing a shot, without the use of force, like the Muslims tried and continue to try, without an army, without wealth, without political connivances, without manipulations, the Spirit spoke the truth through those apostles and the whole world heard it and hears it still.
He convicts the world of sin, because they don’t believe in Jesus. If Jesus did it, then the Holy Spirit gives it. And He did it. He bore the sin of the world. When the Holy Spirit tells you you’re a sinner, He knows what He’s talking about. I don’t know all your sins. I know some of them, I’d be a bad pastor if I didn’t, but I can’t know the pride of your heart, the lusts, the hateful thoughts, the words you say in secret, the faithless worries, the false and slanderous judgments you make against others, I don’t know them, I know my own, but I don’t know yours. But Jesus knows them, not just because He’s God and He knows everything, no, He knows them because He bore them, He suffered for them, He paid for them, the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And because Jesus knew them, and they killed Him, the Spirit knows them, He takes what is Jesus’s and declares it to you. So believe the preaching of the law. It’s not a man who speaks it. It’s God. The Spirit knows. And He convicts you of sin, and He tells you that all that sin comes from the stubborn unbelief of your own heart, and He allows you no excuse. So don’t make any. The world hates Him for this, because He condemns their abortions and their fornications and their greediness and their worldliness, and they don’t want to hear it, but Jesus sent Him to the whole world so they will hear it, and the Church will continue to preach it. But we love the Spirit, He is the Spirit of truth, and we are in the light, and there is no reason anymore to hide from the truth. He convicts the world of sin, convicts us of sin, and we say Amen.
And He doesn’t leave you there. He doesn’t leave the world there either, if they would only listen. The Spirit convicts the world of righteousness. Because He takes of what is Jesus’ and gives it to the world. It’s the devil’s work to convince you of your own righteousness. Every false religion is the same recycled lie of the devil – Hinduism, Bhuddism, Judaism, Islam, JWs, Mormonism – the devil isn’t original, his aim is to get people to believe the obvious untruth that they have a righteousness, a goodness, of their own, that can actually face the scrutiny of the holy God. So the devil produces either arrogance – I am that good! Or despair, I can never be good enough.
And the Holy Spirit does exactly the opposite. He will never convince you of your own righteousness before God. He convinces you of sin. But then He takes of what is Jesus’ and He gives it to you. And Jesus is righteous. He is perfect love. He has done all things well. His life was perfect, His death was perfect, His words were perfect, His actions were perfect, His thoughts were perfect, His desires were perfect. He is perfect, and the Holy Spirit takes it and gives it to you. And it must be for you, because it is for the world, and Jesus will not give up His claim on a single person for whom He lived and for whom He died. The universal claim of Jesus on the whole world comes to you as His individual claim on you, specifically, and that is what you hear in your Baptism, where everything Jesus did the Holy Spirit gives to you, and in the Lord’s Supper, where the Holy Spirit carries those words, spoken by your Lord, those words “for you,” into your heart and convinces you of a righteousness that stands forever before God Almighty.
And the Spirit convicts the world of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. That is done. The devil’s already judged. It’s what we sing all throughout this Easter season, “The strife is o’er the battle done.” Satan’s arrows all lie broken. Death and hell have met their doom. It’s over. Jesus has crushed the head of the serpent. And the Spirit takes what is Jesus’ and gives it to you. Know this and own it, Jesus’ victory over the devil is yours, His feet crushed the devil, so he is crushed under your feet too. Know this, whenever you look out and see the devil seeming to win. It’s not true. He’s not winning. He’s already lost. The judgment has landed, we are only waiting for Jesus to give the final sentence. If you are worried that the devil is winning in your life, take hold of the Word, read it, hear it, immerse yourself in it, and especially the Gospel. The devil is powerful. But he is nothing compared to your Lord. He is squirming under His feet. Know this when the devil tempts you to cave in to sin. He’s judged. It’s over, the rule of sin is ended. Know it when he tempts you to compromise the truth of the Bible because of some popular social pressure. It’s embarrassing. It’s over. You know the truth. He’s judged. Jesus is the truth, and He will vindicate you and His entire Church.
The devil is judged and that means above all that he has no right to judge you. Don’t let him into your conscience. Don’t let him accuse you. Only the Spirit gets to accuse you, and when He does it, and you own it, He never leaves you there. The judgment for your sin landed on Jesus, not on you. The resurrection of your Lord Jesus Christ is God’s final judgment. And it has universal scope. It’s God’s claim on you. Righteousness and life rose from the dead. And the Spirit takes what is Jesus’ and gives it to you. God is your Father and He loves you.
O sing unto the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm, have gotten Him the victory.
Alleluia. Christ is risen.